


Christmas Present

by Paeonia



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Christmas, F/M, New Relationship, Office, PeggysousSecretSantaExchange2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 11:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5455682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paeonia/pseuds/Paeonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For serenyty, for the 2015 Peggysous Secret Santa exchange.</p><p>Prompt: "Peggy and Daniel's first Christmas/holiday season together, when they're still very new and awkward in their relationship. In addition, maybe have the fic explore another milestone (first I love you? first time meeting parents/family/friends?). I generally prefer fluff, and would at the very least like a happy ending."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [serenyty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenyty/gifts).



“Why can’t _every_ day in the office be like this?”

Daniel just smiled.

“I’m serious,” said Peggy. She took another bite of her cookie. “You’re the Chief; write a memo or something.”

“If every day were like this, it wouldn’t be special.”

“Next you’ll be informing me that Christmas comes but once a year or something like that.” She popped the rest of her cookie into her mouth and stood up. “I’ll take those, if you’re finished with them.”

“Thanks, Peggy.” He handed her a small stack of files. She added it to her own pile and carried them over to the cart by the door. She changed them for a fresh stack, turned to go back…  and then paused to enjoy the view for a moment. A fresh swell of affection rose in her heart at the sight of Daniel, sitting on the office sofa, his sleeves rolled up, knocking out another form. She went back across the conference room, put down the files on the coffee table, took off her shoes, and scooted a little closer to him.

It was three-and-a-half weeks now. Four weeks since they’d put the case away, and three-and-a-half weeks since Howard’s big party, when she’d managed to catch Daniel, hand him a glass of champagne, and tell him that she hadn’t forgotten about his invitation to join him for a drink, and she rather hoped he hadn’t either.

They’d gone out for drinks the next evening, after work; it had turned into dinner, just as she’d hoped.  It was a work night, so they’d had to part at a respectable hour. She’d gone home that night with their next date set and a hopeful lift in her heart.

And that led to another date, and to another. They were taking things slowly; they were both cautious and Daniel had a streak of… almost shyness, which she found rather endearing. She seemed to be noticing some new endearing thing about Daniel Sousa every day, some new reason to look forward to the next time she saw him. She held her attraction to him close to her heart, not peeking at it too often; she was content to feel it flourish, growing warmer and warmer, day by day, stronger and stronger.

This change in their relationship was presenting some challenges at the office, starting with staying on task (who knew the way he twirled his pencil in his right hand could suddenly be so fascinating? he really did have nice hands….)  There was nothing in the SSR regulations specifically forbidding fraternization, but they both thought it better to avoid the question. So she was back to throwing her colleagues off the scent. At least this time Daniel was in on it.

But today was Christmas. Daniel had scheduled himself to cover the hated day shift long before Peggy had arrived; since Peggy was still officially on detail from New York, it was natural that she would be assigned to the other day shift slot, freeing up an L.A. agent to be able to spend the day at home — and freeing her up to spend the day with Daniel in relative privacy. They were camped out on the sofa in the conference room, catching up on paperwork, lunching on Chinese food and Christmas cookies, talking, and just enjoying being together.

“If you want every day in the office to be like this, I guess at least this isn’t the worst Christmas of your life,” he said.

“Certainly not. That honor would go to either… let’s see… either the year we spent Christmas in the country with my aunt and uncle and my odious cousins, or… last year.”

Daniel gave her a look of sympathy.

“It was partly my own fault. During the war I was usually in London, so it was my first Christmas away from home…. My flatmate invited me to come out to New Rochelle with her and spend the day with her family, but I was too proud. I ended up taking the day shift with poor Agent Yauch. At least it wasn’t Thompson.” Daniel chuckled.

“You went home, didn’t you?” she asked. “We hadn’t known each other very long, but I do remember thinking that it might have been a bit more bearable if you had been there.”

“Well, I’d offered to work. But Chief wouldn’t let me; he said I’d worked Thanksgiving and I could work New Year’s but enough was enough. He gave me four days off, practically dragged me down to the station himself.”

“I’m surprised you needed so much persuasion.”

“I wanted to show I could pull my weight as an agent.”

Peggy sighed, remembering those ugly, frustrating days in New York. “And now you have your name on the door. You’ve had quite a year.”

“I guess it did turn out to be a good year, didn’t it?”

“Even the last few weeks?”

He smiled. “They’ve been okay.”

Peggy rolled her eyes and picked up her next file.

They worked quietly for another hour, until Daniel tossed his file on the table and picked up his crutch. “Excuse me,” he said, and levered himself to his feet. He paused for a moment.

“Peggy… I need to go down the hall. You’re Acting Chief ‘till I get back, all right?”

“Wilco. I shall squander our entire budget on fruitcake and pink champagne.”

“As long as the coffee gets ordered.” He picked up his file and dropped it off at the cart as he went out the door. Peggy went back to her own work.

Back in New York, Peggy had quickly figured out that “down the hall” was how Daniel Sousa said “to the locker room,” and she’d picked up from the other agents’ talk that it had something to do with his leg. What, exactly, they never said, and perhaps they didn’t know; they avoided the locker room when he was in there. Peggy wasn’t sure whether they were protecting Sousa’s privacy or their tender nerves. Maybe a bit of both. She hadn’t paid much attention; it was just useful information about how things worked in the office.

Otherwise, she really hadn’t given much thought at all to the whole leg topic at all in the year or so she’d known Daniel. It was just… part of him, like spectacles. He’d joked about it now and then, and she’d long been in the habit of keeping to his right and matching his pace (that was just common sense.) Now that they’d been seeing more of each other, she’d begun to wonder a little about what it meant for Daniel. Sometimes she wondered whether he wanted her to ask. In the end, she always decided to wait: if there was something he wanted her to know, he’d tell her.

Daniel returned around twenty minutes later; the cart rattled a little as he made his way around it. “I’m sorry, but… I need to take a break from that sofa for a bit. It’s the sofa, not you.” He picked up a file and started towards the table.

“Of course.” She put her shoes back on and started gathering up the files. “Did you want to work in here, or…?”

“This table’s fine. You don’t have to get up.”

“That sofa’s not _that_ comfortable.” She came around and took a chair on his right corner.

“Thanks. I, ah…. Certain chairs — it gets uncomfortable if I sit too long.”

“Mm?” She smiled and brushed his hand with her fingers. He took the hint and gave her hand a long, gentle squeeze before he picked up his pencil again.

 

They had dinner that evening with the Jarvises. Peggy hadn’t said anything, but she hadn’t needed to; Mrs. Jarvis made approving faces to her all evening. Later, on her way back from the kitchen, Peggy paused in the doorway to the dining room, where Daniel was stacking plates. She smiled as she watched him pick up the little toy top from his Christmas cracker and tuck it into his pocket.

Mrs. Jarvis came and stood next to her. “How long?” she asked. Her voice was warm and confidential.

“A few weeks now. Actually, almost a month."

Mrs. Jarvis nodded and smiled. “He seems perfectly mad about you, you know.”

 

They finally ended up at Peggy’s, drinking brandy and watching the fire in her fireplace, leaning into each other, Daniel’s left arm around her shoulders.

“Daniel?”

“Hm?”

“So was this the worst Christmas of your life?”

“ _No_.” He hugged her shoulders. “Not by a long shot. Which reminds me….” He sat up a little straighter. “It’s not over yet. You have at least one present left to open.” He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a smallish box. Peggy recognized the gift wrap as coming from one of the better department stores downtown.

“It’s not much,” he said, handing her the box. He seemed a little nervous. “But I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I will.” She tore back the wrapping paper and lifted the lid of the box.

It was a dress clip, pillowed on a silk scarf. “Oh, Daniel, how lovely.” She took out the clip and turned it over in her hand. It was a circle, plain at first glance, but trimmed with a subtle rope pattern.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t _do_ anything,” said Daniel. “You know: it doesn’t take pictures or transmit radio waves or have a hidden flashlight…. But if you like it maybe we can get the lab boys to fix it up.”

“Perhaps. I think like it just as it is.” She clipped it to her blouse collar and took out the scarf. It was blue, with a rose pattern. “And this will be just the thing for a drive to the shore. Thank you _._ ” She looked up and was struck by the expression in his eyes. _I think I want to kiss you_ , she realized. She held the thought for a moment; considered….

“And as it happens, I have something for you,” she said. She reached under the coffee table and brought out the present. Daniel looked a little alarmed as she handed it to him. He put it on the coffee table.

She’d spent a preposterous amount of time trying to choose something for him. Nothing _too_ personal — they weren’t _quite_ far enough along for that — but personal. Something that reflected her feelings. 

She watched him carefully undo the ribbon, neatly fold the paper, and put them to the side. He lifted the lid of the box and dug through a couple of layers of tissue paper.

“I hope you like them,” said Peggy. He lifted a picture frame out of the box, and then a second one. “Just something for your new office to make it a little less bare. Perhaps we can look together for something to put in them. Maybe some art, or a photo of the New York City skyline.”

“I like the frames, and I like that idea. Thank you, Peggy. But this…” he pulled a smaller frame out of the box — “doesn’t really look like something that you’d hang on the wall.”

“I agree, that’s really something for a desk or a credenza, don’t you think? Or perhaps your bookshelf at home. That picture you showed me of your family deserves a frame; perhaps it could go in there.”

“And this?” He pulled out the smallest frame in the set. “This one’s really small.”

“I think that one might do well on a desk or in a desk drawer, or on a nightstand. I don’t think there’s room for more than one or two people in it.”

“You’re right. Did you have any particular people in mind?”

“I might have. It’s up to you, of course.”

“But what happens —” he started putting the frames back in the box — “if the people I put in there aren’t the people you had in mind?”

“Then I think I’d rather you not tell me about it. I suspect I would be very, _very_ cross.”

He turned back to her. “I can’t see myself wanting to do that.” His voice was soft. “So when will you tell me? Who you had in mind, I mean.”

“Very soon, I think.” She edged closer to him.

“I hope so.” He took her hand. “It’s funny… usually at Christmas you think about the year that’s just gone by, you know? What you did, who you met, what’s changed since the year before….”

He was almost whispering. “But this Christmas? Even after everything that’s happened this year… All I can think of is the future.” He kissed her fingers. It was so natural that it took Peggy a moment to realize that he’d just kissed her, and for the first time.

She lifted her left hand and gently caressed the side of his face with her fingertips. She rested her hand against his cheek, and saw Daniel close his eyes as he leaned a little into her hand. She closed her own eyes as she felt him gently stroke her hair.

He tenderly kissed her on the top of her forehead. She got ready to protest as she felt him straighten up a little and release her hand, but then he was wrapping his left arm around her, pulling her in a little closer. She decided that she liked the feeling of his warm, firm hand resting on her arm very much, and let herself lean on his chest a moment before she looked up and lightly kissed his cheek, and kissed it again. She smiled as their noses bumped against each other and Daniel’s kiss brushed her cheek. And then she was pressing her lips to his, and she recognized that this was what she’d been waiting for — hoping for — all day.

 

And she knew that she wanted tomorrow to be like this.

 

And the next day.

 

 

And every day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
